Yellowstone Park Foundation

Volunteer Opportunity for History Buffs

The Yellowstone Heritage & Research Center (HRC) houses the Park’s library, archive, and museum collection. The entire collection, one of the largest in the National Park Service, tells the stories of the world's first national park and the creation of the National Park Service. These stories are important enough to American history that the collections are an affiliate of the National Archives.

The HRC staff is always busy with interesting work, and is in need of volunteer help for several of these projects.  Some examples are cataloging early Yellowstone souvenirs, photographs, and postcards; assisting with early newspaper research; re-housing natural history specimens; and completing an inventory of maps and oversized drawings.

Because of the significance and value of these collections, Yellowstone also seeks volunteers to help staff the HRC’s reception desk and security checkpoint, providing basic information to visitors and checking IDs.  For these volunteers, the Park requests a commitment of one half or full day per week.

The HRC is located just outside the North Entrance to the Park in Gardiner, Montana.

For more information or to inquire about volunteering, please contact Colleen Curry, Supervisory Museum Curator, Yellowstone National Park, at (307) 344-2262 or Colleen_Curry@nps.gov.

The Yellowstone Park Foundation raised $500,000 to establish the Yellowstone Archive Fund to help care for the collection housed at the HRC. Park staff are using the fund to organize the collection through careful curation, educate the public by mounting periodic exhibits, enhance the museum collection through targeted acquisition, and ensure access for future generations by planning for the digitizing of the collection.